ISSUED BY
DKC (DE KOCK COMMUNICATIONS) FOR DISTELL GROUP LIMITED
Nederburg Wine Farms,
owned by Distell, has sold its vine plant improvement facility on the farm
Ernita near Wellington. It has been bought by Bosman Adama (Pty) Limited,
owners of family-run nursery, Lelienfontein Vine Growers. The purchase sum has
not been disclosed.
The sale, says
Distell's head of wine and grape buying, Erhard Wolf, will allow the Nederburg
farming operation to focus on its core wine-growing activities.
Lelienfontein Vine
Growers, also in Wellington, has taken over Ernita's gene pool and biological
assets and is renting and maintaining the existing plant improvement facilities
on the farm. It is also taking up all the facility's long-term plant material
supply contracts. The five staff members involved are being retained by the new
owners.
Bosman Adama, headed
by MD Petrus Bosman, is structured as a BEE enterprise. Its vine-growing arm,
established in 1947, is run by the Bosman family, master grafters and vine
growers since 1888.
Ernita's plant
improvement facility was established in 1974 to address the significant
shortage of quality vine plant material at the time. In the intervening years
it has produced a significant gene pool of noble cultivar clones, giving the
six farms within the Nederburg Wine Farms grouping, and also the operation's
supplier growers, access to top-quality vines and plant material of newer
cultivars.
Wolf explained that
following the restructuring and liberalisation of the wine industry at the end
of the 20th century, a far wider availability of new clones of mainstream and
newer varieties had emerged. Consequently, the need for Nederburg to generate
material for its own use had fallen away.
"With the plant
improvement facility now in the expert hands of specialists at Lelienfontein
Vine Growers, we can direct all our resources to vineyard management and
ongoing research into improved viticultural protocols," he said.
"The impressive skills base of the new owners, coupled with the expertise
of the team joining them, gives us every confidence in maintaining access to
excellent quality vine material and also exclusive access to strategic
cultivars."
Nederburg will use
Ernita as a production farm and to research viticultural techniques for
application across the Distell Group.
Lelienfontein Vine
Growers manager, Jannie Bosman said he was excited to tap into Ernita's
capacity, technology and access to the latest technology. The operation would
be using Ernita for maintaining and developing its own gene pool and service agreements with leading table and
raisin grape industry role players.
"The deal places
us in an ideal position to proactively fast-track sought-after vine grape plant
material for the benefit of our customers and the wine, table grape and raisin
sectors of the industry. "
